Month: October 2020

Dr. Peter Francia recently completed the article, “The White Working Class, Union Households, and Trade: Will the Trump Coalition Endure?” for the journal, Society.

Abstract: Donald Trump’s victory in the 2016 presidential election caught many political experts by surprise. Looking to uncover the reasons for this surprising outcome, social scientists presented several explanations in the election’s aftermath. In this article, I discuss one of these explanations: Trump’s success in winning white working-class voters by an overwhelming margin. I also discuss his success in narrowing the advantage that Democratic presidential candidates typically enjoy with voters in union households. Using data from the 2012 and 2016 National Election Pool (NEP), and the 2016 Cooperative Congressional Election Study (CCES), the results in this work show that Donald Trump not only won the support of white working class voters and that he was competitive with voters in union households, but that he significantly improved the Republican share of the presidential vote from four years earlier among voters in these two blocs, including in three critical battleground states: Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin. Trump’s protectionist position on free trade and his opposition to the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), which differed from previous Republican presidential nominees in recent elections, were especially popular with white working-class voters and those in union households. By expanding previous Republican margins with white working-class voters and by narrowing the Democrats’ typical union household advantage, Trump secured himself victories in Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin, which ultimately won him the election. Whether or not Trump is able to repeat this in 2020 against Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden will likely determine if he is re-elected. Moreover, if the Trump coalition proves enduring, it could well shape presidential elections and their outcomes in years to come.

Prof. Hugh Lee recently published an article entitled “The Arbitrability of Nursing Home Disputes” in 349 Elder Law Advisory 1 (April 2020) in which he examines the back and forth debate over the inclusion of pre-dispute arbitration agreements in nursing home admission contracts. This largely reflects changing policy from the Department of Health and Human Services concerning whether Medicare- and Medicaid-approved nursing homes may include such provisions. Prof. Lee is a nationally recognized expert in this area of the law.

We are excited to start the 2nd 8-week block this Thursday October 1st.

This is going to be challenging and exciting but short semester!

Abstract: Until recently, East Carolina University (ECU) had a small culture of marches, protests, and other free speech actions. However, police-involved shootings in Ferguson, Missouri, and Baltimore, followed by the 2016 summer of violence with the mass shooting in Orlando and more police-involved shootings in New York, Chicago, Minnesota, and Texas, dramatically changed the culture at ECU. During the 2016-17 academic year, ECU student organizations hosted more than 25 campus protests and demonstrations—relatively few compared to other institutions, but a large increase for our campus community. Even with wide-ranging topics — from Black Lives Matter to Turning Point USA speakers and rallies from Donald Trump and Bill Clinton — ECU experienced virtually no disruptions in service. Indeed, when the infamous “send her back” chant directed at Rep. Ilhan Omar emerged at a Trump rally on ECU’s campus, our institution found ways to quickly manage the fallout and move forward. Why? Civil discourse.

Through the combination of activities, events, and programmatic efforts, ECU has built a culture that actively engages students in conversations around difficult topics, building an inclusive climate with an eye toward institutionalization. This focused case-study explores how one campus devised comprehensive strategies to address student engagement and direct that interest into the college, community, civic, and public arenas. Specifically, this manuscript will address three broad campus-level efforts around civil discourse, voter mobilization, and democratic educational initiatives.

This three-part model includes both short-term student programs and long-term best practices. Our civil discourse efforts illustrate that teaching students within collegiate settings to deliberate and debate important societal issues assists them in their identity development as well as connects them to their civic responsibilities. Civil dialogues teach our students how to constructively disagree, but also encourage valuable skill development such as listening, counterpoint development, and compromise.

SEE: McCunney, D., Tuchmayer, J. B., Kermiet, T., Stansbury, C., & Kneubuehl, E. (2020). Managing “send her back”: Civil discourse and educating for democracy as campus culture. eJournal of Public Affairs, 9(1), 28-42.